Delhi Police on Friday arrested three persons for allegedly manufacturing illicit liquor in Rohini district’s Alipur area. Police said the main accused — Deewan Singh, a resident of Jhangola village — had previously been booked four times under the Excise Act in 2014. According to a police officer, the incident came to light after a large amount of jaggery was bought from the market in the last few days.

“After receiving this information, we did a recce of the area and found a brick kiln. We waited for two days for the accused to return to the kiln and we arrested them,” said the officer.

DCP (Rohini) M N Tiwari said two drums, four aluminium vessels, 15 litres of raw liquor filled in tube, 11 drums (two filled and nine empty) and four cans of raw material were recovered. He added that two tins filled with three litres of illicit liquor were also recovered. However, it was all for their personal consumption, police said.

Police said Singh, who belongs to Silkali community, used to ferment liquor previously. “The practice has decreased now. For people of the Silkali community, fermenting liquor is a matter of pride. They like to serve it to people at functions and gatherings. But this can be dangerous and people can die,” the officer said.

Police said the spot where they fermented the liquor is located along the banks of the Yamuna in Jhangola village and one has to walk for 2.5 km to reach the area.

Explaining how illicit liquor is made, police said raw materials in the form of sugarcane kikar wood and wild babul is boiled with water in iron drums. After 10-12 hours, the concoction is filled in vehicle tubes and buried beneath sand for fermentation.